Cops set to crack down on modified horns, silencers

ST Correspondent

Tuesday, 4 September 2018

In 2017, the traffic police had arrested 97 such bike riders The number for just first three months of 2018 (January -March) was 430 bikes.

PUNE: The Pune traffic police have decided to take action against those selling and manufacturing modified motorcycles silencers and horns. Use of these adds to the noise pollution and irritates the citizens. Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) has also warned that if anyone found selling illegally modified silencers or horns, his licence will be canceled.

It has been observed that many young bikers in the city use modified silencers on motorcycles and are using noisy horns. DCP (Traffic Police) Ashok Morale had earlier warned bikers to stop such activities. The recently released environment report by the PMC also mentions that these modified/tampered with silencers add to the noise pollution. To impede these violations, Pune police/RTO will take action against vendors who help bikers in modifying these silencers.

Last week, the RTO and traffic police announced to observe September 12 as ‘No Honking Day’ in Pune.

“Use of pressure horns, unnecessary honking and use of modified silencers for bikes are offences punishable with imposition of cash fines or impounding of vehicles as per the Motor Vehicle Act,” said Tejaswi Satpute, DCP, Traffic.

“Earlier, there was action against riders for using modified silencers and horns but only drivers were penalised. Now, it has been decided that if found using such type of silencers or horns, the drivers will be penalised and horns or silencers will be confiscated. Also, we are taking affidavits from the driver with information about from where he or she bought the horn or silencers. On the basis of that affidavit, the traffic police will levy a fine of Rs 100 on the seller. Also, notice will be served to ensure that such horns and silencers will be not sold in the future,” said Satpute.

“If a seller is consistently selling such horns even after being served with notice by traffic police, the seller’s trader licence will be cancelled, as per the law,” said BI Ajri, Regional Transport Officer.

GROWING MENACE
In 2017, the traffic police had arrested 97 such bike riders and had collected Rs 86,600 in penalty from them. The number for just first three months of 2018 (January -March) was 430 bikes and a collection of Rs 3.91 lakh in fines.

Similarly, police the have also caught individuals with bikes that sported ‘extremely noisy horns’ and penalised them. In 2017, 1586 such cases were recorded while in January-March period of 2018, the number was 1,019 cases.